Chapter 38

Lana returned to the hospital. Her parents were still in the hospital room. Lana watched through the blinds as her father consoled her mother who was sobbing almost uncontrollably. Lana felt awful, she knew how much her mother had wanted to have a child of her own and now she had gone and careless cost her mother the baby. As Lana watched her parents hug she placed a hand on the window. She wanted so badly to go in there and apologize, but she knew how her father felt. He was furious, and her mother was probably even more upset. Jor-El was right, by not leaving she had hurt the ones she loved the most.

I'm not going to hurt them anymore, Lana decided. I'm going leave Smallville.

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Pete arrived at the Torch office and found Lana rummaging through the desks obviously looking for something. She had pulled out drawers and tossed them on the floor when she hadn't found what she wanted, spilling their contents all over the place.

"Lana, I've been looking all over for you," Pete said. "I heard what happened."

"Are you here to tell me that I screwed up in some major way?" Lana asked angrily.

"No," Pete replied. "I came to say I'm sorry and I want to help."

"Well it's too late for that Pete," Lana said. "No one can help me now."

Lana continued to pull apart the Torch looking for something.

"Lana what are you looking for?" Pete asked.

"I know Chloe kept one of those red kryptonite rings around here somewhere," Lana responded fiercely.

"Yeah, but what do you want it for?" Pete inquired. "You know what it does to you."

"Yeah, it makes me feel better," Lana answered as if that should be obvious.

"This is not the answer Lana," Pete said. "I saw Clark; I heard what happened to your mom's baby. Lana you need to talk to your folks."

"I did talk to my parents Pete," Lana said whirling around angrily. "You should have seen the way my dad looked at me. It was like I was an alien. If I had done what I should have in the beginning none of this would have happened."

Lana then noticed a ring case sitting on the ground amongst a bunch of spilled contents. She must have missed it earlier. She picked it up and opened it up to see what was inside. Sure enough it was one of the red kryptonite school rings.

Pete jumped forward and tried to stop Lana, "Lana, don't do it. You put that ring on and you're not yourself."

"Exactly what I don't want to be right now Pete," Lana said.

She then pushed past Pete and began walking out of the Torch office.

"Lana!" Pete called after her to stop her.

But it was to no avail. Lana had taken off at super speed.

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Back at the farm Lana pushed her father's motorcycle out of the barn. She was going to leave Smallville. Maybe one day she'd come back, but that was a long way off in her mind. For now she just had to get away from this place.

"Lana, where are you going?" Clark asked as he came jogging up the driveway.

"Away from here," Lana replied as she went back to grab her jacket which was sitting on a stack of hay bales.

"The Lana I know wouldn't run away from her problem," Clark said.

Lana put on her jacket, "The Lana you know is a lie," Lana said.

"Why are you doing this?" Clark asked.

"Because this is what my father wanted," Lana said.

"What do you mean?" Clark asked.

"Jor-el said that if I didn't leave I'd hurt the ones I love the most," Lana answered.

"That was an accident Lana," Clark said.

"Was it Clark? Was it really?" Lana asked rhetorically. "I've already hurt my parents. I'm not gonna stick around to hurt anyone else."

"Lana you're making a big mistake." Clark protested.

Clark grabbed Lana's arm. "I am not giving up on you."

"No one can save me," Lana said. "Not even you."

"Your parents need you," Clark said as tears began to well up in his eyes. "I need you."

Lana averted her eyes, she couldn't bare to look at him.

"I love you, Lana" Clark said.

"I love you too," Lana said barely holding back her own tears. "That's why I have to leave."

Lana turned around and subtly removed the red kryptonite ring from her pocket. She slid it on to her finger and immediately felt the effects.

"Come with me," Lana said turning around to look at Clark.

"Smallville's my home," Clark replied. "It's your home too."

"Not anymore," Lana said as she put on a pair of sunglasses.

She started up the motorcycle and took off. She was reaching the end of the driveway when the motorcycle jerked to halt. She spun around to see Clark hold the back wheel up in the air.

"You'd better let me go," Lana said.

"Or what?" Clark asked.

Lana swung a foot back and kicked Clark in the midsection. Clark lost his grip on the motorcycle and found himself sailing backwards landing on the ground near the barn over two hundred feet away.

As he picked himself up off the ground he saw Lana rev the motorcycle and take off. He decided not to chase her down again.

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Clark was sitting up in the loft looking over Lana's various things that she had left behind and wondering if he had made the right decision. He didn't notice Pete come up into the loft.

"How're you holding out?" Pete asked him.

Clark looked up at him a bit startled, "I could have stopped her Pete."

"But you didn't," Pete said. "Why?"

"I don't know," Clark replied. "Just the look in her eyes, it's like she was a completely different person."

"That's because she is Clark," Pete said. "She stole a red kryptonite ring from the Torch."

"She's probably all the way to Metropolis by now," Clark lamented.

"Look it's not your fault Clark," Pete tried to comfort him. "I could have stopped her from taking the ring."

"I think for now we should just let her go," Clark said. "At the very least she needs time to think about what happened."

"But what about that mark?" Pete asked. "She said that it would control her."

"What mark?" Clark asked.

"The spaceship or Jor-El or whatever it gave her this mark." Pete tried to explain. "I don't really get it but she says it would control her."

Clark stood up, "We've got to find her Pete," Clark said.

"How are you going to do that?" Pete asked. "Even with all your powers you'd be hard pressed to find her in a big city like Metropolis. Especially if she doesn't want anyone to find her."

"There's one thing I don't think she can resist," Clark said.

"What's that?" Pete inquired curiously.

"Me."

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Please Read Over:

So Clark is off to look for Lana. But there's still several other storylines as yet unresolved. What's going on with Chloe and Lex? And is Lionel getting close to discovering the secret of the caves? Will Clark be able to find Lana and bring her home? Find out by reading on.

Just a reminder I created a C2 for fans of Lana. There are some good stories in there, check them out and look for some more entries in the near future. And check out the Smallville Revised Forums for some good discussion about the best TV show on Thursday nights.

Just another one of the usual reminders that if you want to talk to me about the story or Smallville in general. Go on IRC to the otherside servers, irc. (Port 7000), irc. (Port 7000), or irc. (Port 6667), then go to channel #smallville. Hope to see some people there. If you're looking for an IRC client I would recommend X-Chat although there are many other options out there. Really, please go there to discuss any questions answers will be a lot more direct. That and it gets kind of boring talking to the same two people all the time, I need fresh opinions. And if that doesn't work for you, look for the Smallville Revised Forum. I hope to see you in one of the two places.